Just Another Marionette
by SantiStephanie
Summary: The Institute's back-up plan in case Max and the Flock failed. This is their never-ending story.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Throughout this story I have to use quotes that Sydney gives me. This will be fun. And for some added fun, if you can guess what the quote is I'll dedicate a chapter or something to you. I think that that would be kinda neat? (Y)**

Just Another Marionette - Chapter One.

Sydney's POV:

I was flying toward this pond that Erica and I discovered a couple of summer's ago. To be honest, it probably wasn't very smart of me to be flying to the pond in the middle of the night, not to mention I was by myself.

Stephanie would have killed me. Luckily, I didn't get caught escaping.

I could see how the moon was playing off the ripples in the pond's, somehow moving, water. What could make it move when nothing was swimming in it? Beats me.

I landed about a foot from where the shoreline meets the water. I have no idea how I managed to land at that exact point and not _in_ the water. I was talented. What can I say?

I'm sure you're wondering why I was even out here in the first place. I just wanted to go on a midnight-flight and I thought that the pond would be a great destination.

Until I tripped over this log and landed myself in the pond. For some reason I inhaled water and I was gagging on it, sooo, I couldn't really swim while gagging.

Then I felt someone pulling me out of the water. Of all of our flock there was only one person that I could think of that would be strong enough to pull me out of the water. Could you guess who that was?

Bingo! Yahtzee! We have a winner! It was Stephanie.

Me, being the intelligent bird-kid I was I decided to ask her something before she could start chewing me out. "How'd you know where I was?"

"I followed you."

That kinda freaked me out a bit, since when did Steph care? "Why?"

"Figured something like this would happen."

That made me pretty mad. So what did that statement make me? A klutz? "Something like what?"

"You getting hurt?"

I hated her sarcasm. "Why did you save me, then?"

"Because you make those cookies."

Of course, that would explain it all.

* * *

Steph's POV

I forced Sydney to fly home, because believe me, after I didn't say much to her about the sneaking-out-to-fly-to-a-lake-that-she-would've-died-in-if-not-for-me, she was in a I'm-going-to-sit-here-at-this-stupid-lake-and-be-mad-at-Stephanie-until-she-comes-back-here-and-makes-me-go-home kinda moods.

For all guys who may read this, I do not understand girls at all, and heck I am one, so I guess you guys are screwed if even girls can't figure out girls.

Anyways, I was getting pretty annoyed by Sydney's pouting. She wasn't even rambling on about who-knows-what. Trust me, that's the strangest thing in the world.

Ah, what the heck? I could talk to her see if that helps the situation. "Uh... Hey, what's up?"

She gave me the strangest look in the world. I mean, I wasn't one for small talk. To tell the truth, I wasn't one for talking period. "Stephanie, what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?" It wasn't like I didn't know exactly what she was talking about, but at least she was talking, at least it was slightly normal...

Then she looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the universe. "How could you _not_ know what I mean? What sort of illegal substance are you on now, Stephanie?"

Okay, that set me off. I had never done any kind of drug. No marijuana. No meth. No heroin. Nothing, not even the legal stuff like cigarettes or alcohol. I was pure, sort of, but no need to get into details right? "You know better than _anyone_ that I have never once done any sort of anything that would harm me. I'm not an idiot." I looked at her, more like glared, whatever works. "I haven't even thought about it like someone I know."

She gives me the meanest, nastiest kind of look. It's looks like those that kill people. No joke, whatsoever. "Listen, Miss I-never-do-anything-wrong, I know for a fact you've done something wrong. It may have been necessary for our escape from the Institute, but still, it doesn't change what you did. What no one else in our flock did. Something so terrible--"

"SHUT UP! I know exactly what I did. If it wasn't for that Erica and I would have never escaped. It would have been you and Austin flying about wondering what to do having no one to help guide you." I was still glaring. For a moment I felt like I hated her. But I had started this war, no one to blame but poor ol' me.

She wasn't about to give up that was for sure I could see it in her eyes that she was arranging her words for a fantastic (in her eyes) rebuff. "Oh really, kind leader?" I almost snickered because sarcasm just doesn't suit her. At all. "I bet you could've simply knocked the guy out for a few hours. That would've been fifteen times better than what you actually did to him. Why would you even kill someone? Why?"

"Just to remind you, they were killing us in that God-awful place, and I don't think that I'm going to be damned for what I did. Self-defense isn't a bad thing. Though you'll probably never use it a day in your life." I was scowling, I knew that without looking at a mirror, "Sorry, that I killed the poor,_ undeserving,_ freak scientist who had done nothing but hurt us and/or other experiments. I didn't do it out of vengeance. No, it was nothing like that. I simply wanted to escape with the only three people that I could count to be my family and friends. The three people that I had tried to help. The three people that I for some reason couldn't bare to be apart from. Okay?!"

She didn't say anything else the entire flight back to the house. Nothing, not a single word.

* * *

I woke up the next morning to this:

_If I die and go to hell real soon,_

_It will appear to me as this room,_

_And for eternity I'd lay in bed,_

_In my boxers half stoned,_

_With a pillow under my head._

Ah, nothing better than a dose of Say Anything in the morning. That's when it hit me that only one person in this whole freaking house listens to this song besides me. _Sydney._ I ran downstairs, all the while wondering why on earth she was playing music so loudly this early.

I found her. _Innocent_ face sitting right beside Erica. The unknowing _leader_. When I noticed a shiny, new iPod _Touch_. Not her sleek, red iPod Nano Chromatic.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH _MY _IPOD?! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN!"

She looked at me as if there were a perfect explanation, "Mine doesn't play the music out-loud."

I walked over grabbed my iPod, ran upstairs got her iPod _and_ her dock, gave it to her and went back to my bedroom to wonder why this crackhead of a kid didn't do that the first time.

Then, I heard a knock on my door, knowing all to well who it was going to be, "My iPod doesn't have _Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too_ on it."

_Of course._ "Listen to something else."

"I really like that song."

"You like other ones too."

She dropped it and walked out of my room, finally leaving me alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Figured I'd letcha know that this will lead right up until the rewritten version of A New Beginning's start point. Just so you don't think that we're trying to match this up with an uber old story. Same thing goes for this chapter, if you guess correctly about what Sydney made me put in this story from chapters one or two, I will dedicate a chapter to you or something. Kdone.**

Just Another Marionette: Chapter Two.

Steph's POV:

I finally calmed down enough to go downstairs and eat breakfast. Too bad when I got down there I saw absolutely nothing on the table. What did Sydney do anyway? I mean, really, wasn't she the cook in this joint?

"SYDNEY!" I could feel myself getting aggravated again. Like there was some sort of scale inside of me 1 being: Steph wouldn't bite your head off if you tried to talk to her; and 10 being: GET THE HECK AWAY FROM ME BEFORE I KILL YOU.

30 seconds went by and where was she? Not here. GREAT!

"SYDNEY, IF YOU DON'T GET TO THIS KITCHEN WITHIN 45 SECONDS I WILL TAKE AWAY ANY AND ALL BEAUTY PRODUCTS YOU POSSESS AND LOCK THEM UP SO THAT YOU CAN'T GET THEM!"

You know, I really thought that that would convince her. Guess what? She still wasn't in the kitchen a minute after I yelled that. WTF was she doing?

* * *

Sydney's POV:

_That's what you get when you let your heart win,_

_Whoa-oh-whoa-oh_

_That's what you get when you let your heart win,_

_Whoa-oh-whoa_

_I drowned all my sense with the sound of it's beating,_

_And that's what you get when you let your heart win,_

_Whoa-oh-whoa-oh_

It's kinda funny how I was singing along to Hayley five seconds ago, but now I am sitting on the floor seeing the strangest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. All the while I hear Steph yelling for me, I really hope she doesn't get mad, I just can't snap out of this.

* * *

_"Erica? HEY, STUPID, GET UP AND FIGHT, YOU'RE GONNA FREAKIN' DIE!" Steph was yelling at Erica trying to make her fight. Fight what? What was happening to Erica? Dear Jesus._

_"Uhhhhh." Why was Erica almost dead?_

_"Steph?" Austin sounded really worn out._

_"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Steph was stressed, it was obvious._

_He looked kind of shocked, but not at the same time, "That's all of them."_

_"Good, but on the downside of things, I think we just lost Erica." No beating around the bush, huh?_

* * *

Steph was shaking me... awake? No... I dunno what you would call that state. Anyway, apparently my eyes had glazed over and everything, I guess she got worried. "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

I didn't know what to tell her, break it to her subtly or just blurt it all out? Hm... "I had a... vision."

I think I lost her at that point.

* * *

Steph's POV:

"So, you're telling me that Erica is going to die?"

"Well, that's what I saw."

This conversation was weird, all I wanted was breakfast, not a prediction of a flock member's death.

"Uh, well, I was wondering if you could fix me some breakfast, and while you do that, you can tell me all about this nice little vision of yours."

She looked confused a little, "Sure?"

FINALLY, I'M GETTING FOOD. But, not finally, she's telling me about this "vision" again. -Sigh-

* * *

Sydney's POV:

I could tell that Stephanie was trying to figure out what my vision was about, but I could also tell that she was sick of hearing it. "Listen, don't worry about it, I'm sure it was nothing."

"Just because you're sure doesn't necessarily mean that this is nothing, something major could be about to happen." I didn't think that she was bought into the idea of Erica dying, neither was I.

I looked sideways at her, "I think I'll go fly for a little."

"Don't go to the lake." And I was off, leaving her to think of all the crazy stuff that had or could happen in our lives.

**A/N: The thing that Sydney wanted me to put in this chapter wasn't a quote, it was an element of the story. It'll be difficult, so I'll probably give hints if no one gets it by the time chapter four comes around. :D**


End file.
